Flybe training on track for First Great Western

21st Feb 2013

A contract sealed between two of the country’s leading regional transport providers will see the internationally renowned Flybe Training Academy delivering a specially designed Customer Service training course to over 1,000 employees of First Great Western (FGW) rail over the next nine months.

With the theme ‘Great Impressions First Training’ (GIFT), the series of 92, specialist one-day sessions start this month. They will be conducted by Flybe Customer Training staff at a number of city locations, initially at the airline’s Training Academy at Exeter International Airport and five selected FGW locations including its specialist training unit at London Paddington.

The training programme, written especially with the rail company’s Engineering and Control teams in mind, combines Flybe’s successful customer service training programme with FGW’s ‘5 Guiding Principles of Customer Service; Be Here Now, Choose Your Attitude, Working Together, Wear Their Shoes and Make Their Day’.

Jacqui Hepburn, Director Flybe Training Academy comments: “Flybe is pleased to have secured this landmark contract with First Great Western, a company that plays such a key role within the UK’s regional transport sector.

“Since the Flybe Training Academy opened its doors two years’ ago, the wider business community has increasingly sought out our training expertise and we have delivered our successful Customer Service programme to ever growing numbers of third party clients. These have included those across the hospitality and general business sectors who wish to empower their staff with above average communication skills, not only for their customer facing staff but also for those within companies who, as a necessary part of their job, regularly need to effectively interact with colleagues and outside contractors. With this in mind, there is a definite demand countrywide and we definitely have ambitions to design similar collaborative courses for other high volume passenger transport providers in the future.”

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Andrew Perry, Senior Customer Experience Assurance Manager from First Great Western said: “We selected Flybe after spending time with their training department. We put a plan together, outlining the course and objectives. Following research at our engineering depots, at our control centre and on our stations and trains, Flybe came back with a course that is both exciting and has our values at heart. We are very pleased to be working with Flybe on this project and look forward to seeing more colleagues go through the programme.”

Adds Ms Hepburn: “Early feedback from our trainers and from FGW staff has been extremely positive and, with everything firmly on track, we would hope that its success might well eventually lead to this special GIFT being offered and extended even further across the company.”